Reese Witherspoon’s favourite role of her career
Even though she’s only appeared in four live-action theatrical releases in the last ten years, it’s not as if Reese Witherspoon has been any less busy either in front of or behind the camera.
If anything, she’s experienced just as much success when she’s not headlining movies, with the accolades continuing to mount up. As the star and executive producer of Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, and Little Fires Everywhere, she’s played a key role in three massively popular TV shows that have seen her win a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy from a combined total of 11 nominations.
Witherspoon also founded the Hello Sunshine production and multimedia company in 2016 before selling it off to the Candle Media group for a cool $900million just six years later, so it’s not as if her star power has diminished due to a lack of box office hits or acclaimed features where it’s her face on the poster and name in giant letters above the title.
And yet, it’s the role that first turned her from a fast-rising talent into a global superstar that remains her personal favourite, such is the longevity of Legally Blonde, as she explained when asked by Today to name her most memorable role: “I just think about Elle Woods a lot, and what a source of strength she is.”
Continuing, she expanded on the unexpected legacy the comedy sensation left behind: “I’ve had young women come up to me and say they went to law school because of Elle Woods,” she said. “It’s incredible to see how long movies can last, and how important they can be to generation after generation.”
A trailblazer in more ways than one, Witherspoon described Woods as “a modern feminist,” one who “enjoyed getting dressed up and getting her hair done.” Of course, that didn’t diminish her accomplishments in the slightest, with the actor celebrating that “she was also fierce, she knew what she wanted, and she was determined to get it.”
Considering that Witherspoon would go on to become an A-list star, an Academy Award winner, a producorial powerhouse, the brains behind a business deal worth almost a billion dollars, launched a retail brand, oversees a book club with global reach, works closely with various charities and women’s rights organisations, and still finds the time to maintain her on-camera endeavours, it’s fair to suggest that Woods very closely matches her own drive, too.
It might remain the favourite role of her entire professional existence, then, but Legally Blonde 3 still can’t seem to get off the ground. It’s been 20 years since Witherspoon played her signature part, but after several false starts, the third instalment only remains in the very earliest stages of development.
